Like a Lost Puppy, but More Sarcastic
by Rasberry Parfait
Summary: A human girl decides she wants to be friends with Jasper and doesn't take no for an answer. Why? What makes him so special? Rated k for excessive sarcasm and the use of the c-word. JasperXOC FRIENDSHIP not romance, I promise.
1. You Remind Me of a Time

A/N: As cliché as it sounds, I literally got this from a dream

A/N: As cliché as it sounds, I literally got this from a dream. Unlike other stories that were inspired by dreams, this one actually stayed pretty accurate to what my dream was. It isn't a JasperXOC romance, I promise.

Also, this is going to be pretty short. I'm anticipating, maybe, five chapters. It really all depends. At least it's better than my usual oneshots, right? RIGHT?

Oh, and I don't live anywhere near a Hurricane-susceptible place, so if it doesn't make sense, sorry.

Disclaimer: So, you know when you have two dreams, where the dream randomly switches to another dream? Well, after I was done dreaming this story, I dreamed that I went to Little Brown Co. and asked if I could have Twilight. They told me to ask Stephanie Meyer. So I went to her house and was knocking on the door and she answered it and I asked if I could have Twilight, she was all "No." and then a few days later, I found out that she had a restraining order pulled against me, I couldn't even go to Arizona anymore, and then I was making a pilgrimage to Forks and accidentally took a wrong turn into Arizona and then was attacked by Chuck Norris and a pack of those angry attack dogs and then put in jail for the rest of my life.

I took it as an omen and decided not to go ask for Twilight from Little Brown Co. So I don't own Twilight. On a related note, I don't own Harry Potter either, but that's because that is a power too great for one person to handle. And I don't own Steven Spielberg, Harrison Ford, Tim Burton, Johnny Depp or Danny Elfman either. Or the song And I wouldn't even want to own Hollister, Abercrombie and Fitch, Victoria Secret or Blake Lively. I own Rory, though. (Rory's the girl who's narrating.) I also own Danny and Ellis.

Do I win for longest Disclaimer ever?

Stupid Forks. Stupid Hurricane. Stupid life.

I missed Florida.

How did people survive, breathing in so much moisture all the time? How did they survive the cold? In Florida, the seasons are as followed: Hot, really hot, slightly less hot and cold but yet somehow still hot. That was how I liked it. Even when Hurricane Carly threatened our very lives, it wasn't as unyieldingly cold as this arctic wasteland.

I missed Ellis.

Ellis was my best friend, back in Florida. His parents hadn't freaked out and decided to move when Carly was knocking at their door, and they were even closer to it. Ellis was named after Ellis Island, in New York, where his great-grandparents had immigrated to America from Ireland. I missed his blindingly red hair, how it wasn't like most, it was the reddest natural hair you could imagine and had depth. Exactly like a flame, and even more so because he added blue to it. Blue was his favorite color. And he was overly dramatic. He was going to be the next big thing, the next Harrison Ford and I was going to be the next Spielberg. Okay, maybe more like the next Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Whatever. And we'd always talk about how we grew up together, how I moved to Forks but that didn't stop us.

I missed Danny. Danny was my older brother-well, one of them, anyway-and he was studying music in New York. This would be so much better with him here. He always knew exactly what to say. If Ellis was the Johnny Depp to my Tim Burton, Danny was, ironically, my Danny Elfman. Danny was so funny, he could always make you laugh and he would know how to make this, as Juno's stepmom said, "Garbage dump of a situation" work for everyone. Plus, I had three older brothers and two younger ones and without him here, I was more outnumbered than usual.

Why a diner? My mother always accused me of being too random, she said that I got it from my dad; my mind was all over the place. Well, I'm still here, aren't I? And as much as I disliked this place, I wasn't going anywhere. Not like him, he left when I was eleven and he's who-knows-where. Whatever, I never had a close relationship with him, he was a workaholic who was no good at being a workaholic and it took me eight years to figure out that he was even related to me. And then he ran off to become the next Keith Richards and good luck with that, because it's been four freaking years and I haven't heard anything about him. But if I do, I'll go to his concert with a sign saying "Screw You Dad" and go home and burn that sign in one of those bonfires that the La Push kids have all the time because even that means nothing to me, because it won't be some life-changing discovery, it's just telling the truth and letting him know that he doesn't have to feel guilty, because we're doing fine. He should, he probably doesn't and he doesn't have to. Either way, he was never much of a dad, so I don't consider him a loss. He's really more of what I like to call a "biological donator."

I shake my head, trying to get back to where I was going. Oh, right. Why a diner? That's so random. My mom says I'm random. Hypocrite. Why a diner? She likes reading. She could open a bookstore. One where I could be a cashier and read Harry Potter all day, except when people wanted to buy stuff. But no, she decided to open a diner and make me a waitress, and then tell me she's "worried that I'll become anti-social." Great. Love you, too, mom. Hey, can you rub it in a little more that I've got no friends in this stupid town? I don't think it's really doing the job; my self-esteem just isn't plummeting nearly as much as we'd hoped. I'm thinking about buying a t-shirt that says "I'm not anti-social, society is anti-me!" just to tick her off. Maybe if I had time to actually go anywhere, I could make friends but I'm stuck here dealing with patronizing customers all day. Because of course, since I'm a waitress, I must be intellectually deficient. Not like I'm just trying to make a living, not like I have dreams.

Don't get me wrong; I love my mom, and I appreciate everything she does for me and my brothers. But she has absolutely no tact.

I look up from the notebook that I'm doodling in to find the parking lot full. I've been here longer than I thought, the page is full and when I got here there was only one other car. There's a shiny silver Volvo parked right next to my old Mustang, and it must've just shown up because five people are getting out of the car, and they are all freaking gorgeous.

There's this guy who's got a smile like my little brother, curls like my other little brother and a body like Hulk Hogan. He's gotta be, like, six-foot-six, at least, and I'm pretty sure that he could easily go into any Abercrombie or Hollister in the country and get a job as a model. And he'd look really dangerous, but he caught me looking over at him, grinned, and winked. Not an overly friendly or flirtatious gesture, just something to show that he was not going to kill me for glancing in his direction.

Then there's this perfect blond girl who you could walk into a classroom feeling like Blake Lively-no, wait. Blake Lively could walk into a classroom and see this chick and be like "Crap, I just lost my job." If that makes sense. Let's just put it this way-if the cute body-builder is a Hollister model, then Blondie is a Victoria Secret model. She doesn't look in my direction.

And then there's this other girl, a petite, tiny little thing that walks like this girl at my old school who took dance lessons, only a million times more gracefully. And she's got this pimpin' short, black hair that's all spiky. She raises her eyebrows at The Rock's reassuring gesture and then looks over at me, and I can just hear her thinking "Oh, new kid." She smiles. I smile back tentatively.

Then there's this guy who isn't quite as tall or bulky as the first guy, but could still be a model for one of those buy-our-seventy-dollar-jeans-instead-of-tearing-holes-in-your-own stores. He's got this brownish-reddish, bronze hair that's relatively bright, but Ellis's would still put it to shame. He's rolling his eyes at what I'm assuming is his family's-or part of it's-interest in me, though they aren't even looking at me now. He looks at me in disinterest, like he's only looking at me because there's no other option. Yeah, right. Admit it, dude, you can keep your eyelids down and act cool all you want but you're still looking at me like a clown, like a trapeze artist at the circus. I widen my eyes to say "Can I help you?" He rolls his eyes, smiles like he's chuckling softly-I can't hear him, but it looks patronizing-and walks away.

I already like Curly better than him.

And then there's this tall, lanky blond guy. He's got hair a couple shades darker than Barbie and kind of a bean pole, because even though he's can't be much shorter than the first, friendly guy, he's way skinnier, but of course, still gorgeous. He glances at me, and sees that I'm looking at him, and frowns, like he's trying to figure something out. I give him the same look-his confusion is confusing me. This confuses him more. I stop the cycle and smile tentatively. He smiled politely back, not as warm as the other two but not cold either.

This all happened very quickly, and then they all walked away.

The weird thing was, even though none of them looked remotely alike, they all had the same whiter-then-white kid skin, no color at all, and these shadows under their eyes like they hadn't had a good night's sleep in quite awhile. And their eyes were all gold. Not like, goldish-brown. I mean, actual gold-looking-gold. Like, if a miner found one of their eyeballs, the other miners would push him down an abandoned mine shaft and then kill each other over it.

As they walked away, I pathetically wanted to follow them. Because the last kid, the tall blond guy? He reminded me exactly of Danny.

A/N: What did you think? Review and let me know! Also, the use of term "white than white kid skin" isn't racism. She never said that was a bad thing. I happen to white, so why would I be racist against myself? That wouldn't make a great deal of sense, now would it? No. Okay. Anyway, review and let me know what you liked and what you didn't and whether I should continue. Next chapter: Edward's POV!

Other A/N: Even though I tried to keep my personal feelings out of this as much as possible, you may have gotten the feeling that I don't like Edward. And I don't.

No, I'm not a lesbian.

I just find Edward incredibly boring. Even his flaws (Cough, cough distain for human race, cough, cough no sense of humor, cough, cough) make him boring. That's just my opinion. I'll try not to Edward bash too much, since a lot of people seem to really like Edward. So, from this point on, I will keep my opinions on that to myself.

But Rory might not. Sorry.


	2. With a Habit of Instigating Trouble

A/N: So, I got a surprising response for the first chapter

A/N: First off: It's just a rewrite of Chapter One, in Edward's POV. Edward's a hard POV to write for, it turned out, but I needed it to be him because he knows what everybody's thinking. But anyway, please let me know what you thought of it.

Second, I got a surprising response for the first chapter. Four reviews? Whoo! Let's see if we can top it for chapter two. (Hint, hint.) Thanks to everybody who reviewed! This is for you!

I am Switzerland101: Okay, I'm glad I didn't offend you then. And of course, I like that term, too, which is why I used it in the story. And here's chapter 2!

Youdontwant2know: First off, I just wanna say that I like your pen name. Second, I'm glad you like it! Also, I found your comment comforting, as I was a little worried people would be like "OMC are you crazy y don't u lyke Edward??" or whatever. And you're probably right, Edward can't be much shorter than the other two…I think it's because I pictured him leaning against the Volvo, thus making him look, well, not short, but not as tall as he is in Rory's point-of-view. I will make a point of mentioning that later in the story. And lastly, anything to make you and your sarcasm happy. :-.D

Jasper Hale x Alice Cullen: Thanks! The part about the miners was actually a last minute thing, I was going through the story in the document stage and I decided I wanted to emphasize that they're eyes were gold, gold. So I'm glad it made you laugh!

Allthatjazz1611: Glad you liked it!

Someonewayoverhyper: Thanks! I'm glad you liked it!

Disclaimer: What, after that huge disclaimer in chapter one, I _still _have to put one here? Did that count for anything? Fine, fine. I don't own Twilight. Happy?

Okey-do. Now, onto the story!

(Edward's POV)

I felt bad for Jasper. I tried not to, since I knew he'd be able to tell, and didn't like being pitied, but I couldn't help it. When he came to school that day, he didn't expect a human to decide she wanted to be his best friend. It was out-of-the-blue, and he had no time to consider how he would react.

When we got to school, there was somebody already parked in our spot, an old blue mustang. I knew the car's owner must be new, since I'd never seen the car before, and because most other students made it a point to avoid parking near us, and rightfully so. As it turned out, the owner _was_ new, and she was still sitting in her car. We pulled into the spot next to her, and she looked up. I could immediately tell that she wasn't from this town, as her skin was tan, a natural, sun-tan. She had short, black hair, and large blue eyes that contrasted with her dark coloring otherwise. She also had a strong jaw line and a high forehead. Different, in our town, but unremarkable.

She was looking over at Emmett. People usually noticed him first, for obvious reasons.

I scanned her mind out of bored curiosity and found that she doing mental evaluations of each of us, except that they were different than most humans'. The status quo was as followed, at least for females.

Emmett: They all made the same comparison, a football player, and used the stereotype to convince themselves Emmett lacked intelligence when they learned he was taken.

Rosalie: Beautiful, but also probably unintelligent and will one day wind up working as a prostitute. To convince themselves they weren't jealous.

Jasper: Weirder than the rest of them. Sometimes he acts like he's got something against people he isn't related to. What a freak. This one was partially understandable-Jasper had a tendency to glare around at humans when he was especially thirsty, just to make it clear they were not welcome to come anywhere near him. Which they never did anyway, but safety first, I supposed.

Alice: A punk weirdo who smiles at everyone but doesn't talk to them. They condemned Jasper for not being friendly and Alice for being too friendly. I found this ironic.

And, Me: "My future husband."

This girl's thoughts were more like this:

Emmett: He will not kill me, and he has a sense of humor.

Rosalie: Pretty, who knows what her personality is like?

Alice: Nice person with cool hair. And short.

Me: A bit on the arrogant side, the 'cool guy' stereotype.

Jasper: Confusing. Looks like my brother.

While I can't say I wasn't-well, not offended, she was only a human, but a bit irritated-I can't say I didn't respect that she was at least attempting to work past our appearances before deciding what she thought of us. Though she was working a bit quickly and making quite a few assumptions, she was trying.

I looked at Jasper, who seemed to be confused by the emotions she was giving off. She seemed to giving off affection toward him. I would have attributed this to a crush, but it wasn't. Through Jasper's eyes, I saw it was a more sibling attachment. I decided to let it go for now. She wouldn't do anything.

Looking into her mind, I found that she had a penchant for instigating trouble and a knack for upsetting people simply through disagreeing with them-complimented by her love of, and talent for, arguing.

I wondered what kind of ruckus she would cause at the little High School.

As we were walking away, I continued to monitor her thoughts, just in case I ever needed to find her again-unlikely, but you couldn't be too careful-and came across something alarming.

She wanted…to follow us?

No. She wanted to follow him.

I glanced over at Jasper and then at Alice. Alice, eyes closed, was worried. I looked into her mind and saw that we would be receiving a visit from this new girl-Rory-at lunch. She wanted to make friends with us-with Jasper.

I was torn between wanting to scream and wanting to laugh. I chose the second option and grinned.

Poor, poor Jasper indeed.

A/N: Sorry, Ch. 3 will be longer, I promise! Also, I know some authors like to hold new chapters ransom in return for reviews. I will not do that. I may, however, conveniently get tied up with schoolwork, and if that happens, I may come on and see how many reviews I've gotten and either be thrown into despair and end the story, or be touched by the number and decide to update. I think we understand each other.

No, I'm just kidding. But seriously. Review. Please.


	3. Fact: You Just Got Pwned

A/N: Hey guys

A/N:…I swear I have a good excuse for being so late.

Okay. So, see, well, what had happened, was, I started three classes about a month in the semester and if I don't catch up by Nov. 11, they kick me out of my school. Nice, right? I'm not actually caught up yet, just kind of resigned to getting kicked out of my charter school and into independent study, where at least I start my classes on time and might graduate early.

But enough of my personal drama.

Someonewayoverhyper: Thanks! Glad you liked that part, I did too! And you don't have to wait any longer, because here's chapter three!

Rainbow-NinjaChick: Thanks! So, you think Rory's cool, then? Okay, I was worried I was making her too negative, a "Leah Clearwater," if you will.

Yoroichi.Is.Sailor.L: Glad you liked it! And unfortunately, this story takes place around three years before Twilight, so no; Rory won't be meeting Bella unless I decide to add a little thing at the end, just for you, which I'm considering doing if you review lots. :-.D

Youdon'twant2know:Thanks! I liked Rory's point-of-view better, too, thus, this chapter is written so. So you don't think my dislike of Edward was too obvious? Okay, good. Also, I think this one's longer, so yay! Tell your friend that I said I like it, okay? Those lists were probably the part that came the easiest for writing because it wasn't Edward's thoughts, it was humans, thus easier to inject funny into. And…here you go!

The-vampire-act: NO, NOT CHASE!! Okay, here's chapter three, take it! Sorry, for some reason he scares me more than the Volturi do. Also, I prefer Jacob to Edward…but I prefer anyone to Edward. And thanks!

Hailey-Stone: Glad you liked it!

So, my good readers, here is chapter three!

Disclaimer:

SM: What is this? You don't own Twilight!

Me: Sure, sure.

SM: You don't even own that!

Me: But I own Rory though. WHAT NOW?

SM: See how many people would buy her on eBay.

Me:…okay. You win.

(Rory's POV)

It wasn't a psychological issue. Because I knew what I was doing. There was no second agenda hidden somewhere in the depths of my sub-conscious; I knew exactly how stupid I was being, but I figured I'd go ahead and do it anyway.

I realized that the only reason I wanted to hang out with the guy was because he looked like my brother, only, you know, perfect. And I knew that him being a year older than me didn't hurt. And I knew that wasn't fair to him, and that it wasn't nice to want to be friends with someone to replace someone else-and I also knew that was narcissistic to think that my friendship would mean that much to him.

And that's when I knew I was over-thinking it.

I shook my head.

Fact: I was going to talk to this guy at lunch.

Just introduce myself, see what happens.

I walked into the lunch room and there's this girl from my English class who's just chattering away at my ear, but I just tune it out. That's always been a specialty of mine, selective hearing. And seeing. And smelling. And remembering. You get the point. I looked around the cafeteria once, and then saw the five model children I saw earlier sitting all by themselves in a table in a corner. Hm.

And then the girl was like, "Are you even listening to me?"

"What? Of course! You were saying, um, how we have too much homework, right?"

She nodded. Holy…I guessed right? Whoa.

"Staring at the Cullens?" she asked me like it was a recently acquired disease, but not one that was unexpected, and one she was sure I would get over quickly. The same way people ask you if you have a cold.

"You mean…" I jerked my head in direction of unpigmented perfection.

She nodded like…like…ah, can't come up with a decent analogy, she was patronizing me, like was reveling in what she knew that I didn't.

"Edward, right? He's gorgeous, but don't bother, he doesn't date. And Emmett-"

"Wait, who now?"

She sighed, still smiling that patronizing smile.

We sat down at a table.

"Okay," she said, "The family's name is Cullen. They're dad is Dr. Cullen, the head doctor at the hospital." She paused.

I nodded.

"He's only in his twenties; he and his wife adopted them."

Pause. Nod. Like she wondered whether I could keep up.

"The big football-star looking guy is Emmett. The blond girl is Rosalie Hale. They are a couple." She said this with a disapproving tone. Psh. These Forks kids needed to get out more. Go flip on the television or something. Heck, watch Juno, because

Fact: There are far worse things than dating somebody in your house.

"Hale?"

"She and her brother are Mrs. Cullen's nieces, I think."

"Wait…brother?"

"The blond boy is Jasper, and he's Rosalie's twin. The short girl with the spiky hair is Alice. They are also dating." I almost laughed at that tone again, but didn't.

"And then, the almost redhead is Edward, and he's single, but don't get your hopes up. He's never taken an interest in anybody, ever." She sounded like she was scolding me for even thinking about asking the dude out, which, as it happened, I wasn't.

Fact: Mr. More Perfect than Perfect had some attitude issues.

"Who's the blond guy again?"

"Jasper Hale."

"I'm going to go talk to him."

"But I told you, he's not single."

"Well, I'm not going to ask him out."

"Then why are you going to talk to him?" she said, acting like the concept of talking to a boy as just a person and not boyfriend material was foreign to her.

"Because he seems cool."

"He's weird." She stated.

Fact: Forks people do not take kindly to perceived weirdness. Hm.

"How so?"

"He glares around the room sometimes, and sometimes I catch him looking at people like…like he wants to eats them or something."

I couldn't help it. I started laughing.

"What? It's true!" she said, sounding affronted.

"Sorry." I said quickly. "I kinda wanna find out what they're like for myself. I'll be right back."

As I walked away, I heard her mutter "Poor kid." In what I'm sure she thought was a quiet tone of voice.

I approached the table. All five assorted Cullens and Hales looked at my approach with expressionless faces, except for Edward and Alice, who seemed oddly amused by my arrival.

I stood there for a minute, and then said, "Um, hi…I'm Rory."

Nobody answered. I held my hand out to Jasper. He looked at it, and then looked up at me, his eyes narrowed. Something in the air had changed; a sudden realization had hit that I wasn't going away on my own. They were prepared to force me away.

"Can we help you?" he snapped.

I dropped my hand.

Fact: I just got dissed.

"Yeah. Actually, I was wondering if I could sit here."

"That wouldn't be the best idea." Jasper said curtly. "In any case, you seemed to have been having a well-enough conversation with Jessica."

So that was my informant's name.

"Yeah, well, I'm new, and I'm all about meeting as many people as possible." I said with enough sarcasm in my voice that they knew I wasn't one of those overachieving psycho friendly types.

"You wouldn't want to meet us." He stated calmly.

I couldn't help it. I started laughing.

He raised an eyebrow, but aside from that, remained stoic.

"What's funny about that?"

I gained a decent level of control on my laughter and said, "'You don't want to meet us?' Seriously? What Batman movie did you get that from?"

Mean blond boy was not amused.

Fact: He just got dissed back.

"I don't find that amusing, actually."

"Do you find anything amusing at all?"

He didn't respond.

"So," I asked, "If you're going to be cold now, can I ask why you were smiley this morning, Mr. Sunshine?"

"This morning, you weren't irritating me."

"I wasn't trying to then. I didn't know you like I do now."

He narrowed his eyes more.

Fact: He just got burned.

"I will ask you one more time. Please, go away."

I have always, always loved a challenge. In Florida, there was a boy who, one day, I realized I'd known for four years and had never seen him smile. I vowed that I would make him smile one day. I never did, but I never gave up. The day I left, I saw him at the store and tried to make him smile. Nothing. Did I give up?

No. The other day, I had sent Ellis an e-mail with a bunch of jokes to tell the dude, instructing him to keep a camera with him in the event that one of them succeeded.

The thing with that guy was, it wasn't inconsistent. He never smiled, not at me, not at anyone. Jasper had smiled just that day, I'd seen it. So it was a mystery, and one that I wanted to solve. I set my goal in the short space between his "request" and my response.

Mission: Have a civil conversation with Jasper Hale, and make him smile.

"You never asked me that once until right now. But whatever. I'll go. But I'm not giving in. I'm going to regroup and reconsider my position. But you haven't seen the last of me. Oh, no. I'll be back. This is not the end. Do you hear me? This is not the end!"

I slammed my fist on the table, and walked away.

Fact: He just got pwned.

I walked back to my seat.

"So?" Jessica asked.

"They seem nice."


	4. They Tied Me Up with Scarves

A/N: Hey everybody! Here's Chapter Four! I can't respond to everybody's reviews today simply because of time limitations, but I do want to thank everybody who did review. I am just amazed-and thrilled-at the support and advice you've all given me. You all rock so hard that even Keith Richards (who I don't own) is jealous.

And also, please, don't send Dr. Chase after me…

Anyway, the moment of truth for school is in a week and three days. Thus, I'll be working my bum off for the next week, and thus, I won't be able to crank out the chapters with the LIGHTNING FAST SPEED I've managed so far.

As you can tell, I'm feeling extra sarcastic tonight. :-.D

Disclaimer: If you sued for this, you wouldn't get much. Probably just the 7 Up bottles littering my computer desk, and some chapstick. But if it makes you happy, then fine. I don't own Twilight, is it all better now?

Warning: As some of you may have noticed, this story is in Humor/Angst. Here's where I start building up to the angst. It's nothing overdramatic-no cutting, no eating disorders, none of the usual stuff. It's pretty subtle, actually. But I felt I should warn you, anyway.

LATER THAT DAY…

(Jasper's POV)

I paced the living room. I sensed Esme's eyes watching me, concerned, but chose to ignore it.

"What happened?" she asked Alice.

I didn't need to look up to see Alice grin. She found this monumentally amusing. I couldn't blame her, as nothing interesting ever happened at school before today, but still, it would be different if the tables were turned.

"A human girl wants to be best friends with him, and it's making him upset." She informed our mother.

I sensed Esme's concern vanish when she knew it was nothing serious.

To her.

I couldn't help but feel just a little bad for how I had treated the girl that day. I hadn't wanted to be rude, but it was necessary in protecting the family.

I had hoped she would take the hint and move along, but instead, she chose to work harder than ever at being friends with me. I could tell by her emotions. Her resolve was strong, stronger than most humans by far.

I sighed. So, she was not giving up easily. That was a given.

I scanned through my options. One: Politely ask her to please leave me alone.

I doubted that this would work.

Two: Tell her that I, and my entire family, had an infectious disease and that if she hung around much longer, she would catch it…

I didn't need to hear Edward snorting upstairs to realize how stupid this idea was.

Three: Threaten her.

Hm…that could work. Nothing that would make her call the cops, just enough to make her back off. Most humans seemed to have an innate fear of us, not strong, but something to work with; I hadn't detected any fear in her that afternoon, but then, I hadn't been paying very close attentions to her emotions, either.

It was a 50/50 chance, but for now, it was all I had, until I learned more about her. If I had learned anything in my time in the military, it was always know your enemy better than you know yourself.

I sighed. I hadn't wanted to have to resort to this, but it seemed the only logical choice at this point.

I stopped pacing. "Edward?" I said.

He was there quickly, of course, but not as quickly as he could have been. I could tell he was annoyed.

I hadn't wanted to come to Edward for advice for what even I had to admit was an immature reason-I resented that he found this amusing. Granted, the entire family found it amusing-minus Rosalie, who disliked humans near any member of the family; Esme, who disliked seeing anyone upset; and Carlisle, who wasn't back from the hospital yet and didn't know that we'd had anything other than an ordinary school day-but still, I resented him, I suppose, for not having warned me. Alice hadn't, either, but I found it impossible to resent Alice for anything.

"Yes?" he asked irritably.

"What did you happen to find out about Rory today?"

He raised his eyebrows at my use of her name, but said nothing about it.

"She lives with her mother," he said, "In a house over a diner. They moved to Forks from Florida, after Hurricane Carly hit. She is the only girl in her family, with five brothers. She's right in the middle, with three older, two younger."

"_Why did she suddenly decide to make friends with me?"_ I thought, raising an eyebrow.

"She thinks that you bear a resemblance to her favorite brother. He's at college right now, and she misses him. I suppose she's looking for a replacement." He shrugged.

"Hm. Thank you, Edward. That helped a lot."

He rolled his eyes and ran back upstairs. Living alone for so long was finally taking a toll on him-lately, nobody could say, or think, anything without him rolling his eyes. In fact, as I thought that, I didn't need any gift to know that he was probably rolling his eyes upstairs.

So I looked like her brother? At first, I couldn't say I'd had anything against the girl, but now, it was different. It would be different if she'd had a decent reason for it, or even if she'd had no reason at all, if she'd picked me at random. I couldn't explain why this irritated me so much, but it did. It seemed so…petty, for all the trouble it was causing-and was going cause, I knew.

I narrowed my eyes.

I was most definitely going with option three tomorrow.

(Rory's POV)

I stared incredulously at the bowl of ice cream.

"Melt." I ordered it.

It remained solid.

I sighed.

Forks High didn't have a big variety of electives. It had a basketball team, a yearbook class, an art class and a choir. I was never much of a singer, and I wasn't athletic-my brothers were, and they'd signed up for try-outs immediately (yes, they still had open spots in October-that was how small the school was) but I didn't do sports-at least, not ones that had balls, birdies, or anything else that could easily be used as a projectile weapon. It wasn't that I was bad, it was just that these things seemed magnetically drawn to my face. That left Yearbook and art, and since I figured that with so little activity on campus, the yearbook would be boring either way. Thus, art class, where my super-smart teacher had assigned us to draw melting ice cream.

"_Melt," _I told it again. Nothing.

My mom kept the house really cold, for some reason or other, but come on. Seriously?

"Melt!" I almost screamed at it. It didn't budge.

The truth was, there were two reasons I wanted it to melt. One was, I wanted to start drawing so I didn't have to think about the days events yet, and two, I was hungry, and I was worried I'd eat the ice cream. Which wouldn't be a problem, except that this was the last of it. The last time I'd finished off a carton of ice cream, my older brothers had tied me up and locked me in the bathroom.

Despite this unpleasant memory, I couldn't resist. I stared at the ice cream for a few more moments, then went to find a spoon.

When I was finished, I was just beginning to come up with decent lies, when I saw a short brunette head watching me from the stairs, eyes narrowed.

"Alex," I said cordially, glaring.

He glared back for a few more seconds, then ended our standoff by running upstairs.

"OWEEEEEN!" he screeched.

Alex is six. He is short, skinny and very small.

Owen is seventeen. He's tall, athletic and very big. Almost as big as Emmett.

So I did what any relatively sane person would do. I ran.

You have to go through the diner to get in or out of our house. My mom still felt the need to yell "AURORA NEILSON! YOU ARE SCARING THE CUSTOMERS!"

…What customers? The diner was empty…

Some people think really well on their feet. In moments like these, full of adrenaline, they know exactly what to do, like it's scripted.

I don't think I'm one of those people, because by the time I realized my keys were in my pocket, I was halfway down the street. I'd slipped on the sidewalk.

Twice.

And then, finally, after running back, I was driving, away from perpetually frozen ice cream and brothers and nonexistent customers.

Which left me nothing to do but think about Jasper.

First off, why had he suddenly decided to be so cold? I mean, first he smiles at me-not in an overly friendly way, but still, he smiled-and then he acts like I'm the total freaking scum of the earth. Why?

Theory One: He was bi-polar.

No…bi-polar people have extreme mood swings. There was nothing extreme about the guy, unless you count extreme height or extreme perfection, both strictly physical attributes.

I looked over and saw the diner, and kept driving.

Theory Two: He wasn't smiling that morning. It was just gas.

I could hear my brothers laughing maniacally at this theory inside my head, and that was when I knew that it was stupid.

And that I was spending too much time with them.

Theory Three: I looked like someone he knew, but someone that he hated. He didn't notice the resemblance until he saw me up close.  
Hm…it's a long shot, but it might work.

Note to self: Ask Jasper why he decided he doesn't like me tomorrow. I almost started reaching for a napkin to write it down on, before remembering that I was driving.

I got to the Diner for the second time, and this time pulled in. No more running. I thought about climbing the fire escape and getting into my bedroom through the window, but then I saw Owen at the window.

I sighed. No getting out of this then. I should've hidden while I still had the chance.

I got out of my car and gave Owen the look of a martyr. He smiled this evil smile and disappeared from the window in response.

I opened the front door. Nobody was there.

Of course. They wouldn't want to disrupt the "customers."

I came inside, walked across the diner, and to the door to the back room.

I opened it slowly.

Before I saw anything, Owen was flipping me over his shoulder and carrying me to the laundry room door, where Nathan, my other older brother, stood with an evil smile and several scarves. Somewhere, I could hear Alex and Gary laughing their five and six-year-old heads off.

I started praying.

SOMETIMELATERSOMETIMELATERSOMETIMELATERSOMETIMELATER

I had done far worse things than eat the last of the ice cream, and had never received this bad of a punishment.

I expected to be there for a few hours. But as I watched the clock on the wall go from Seven to eight, eight to nine, nine to ten and finally ten to eleven, I realized they weren't coming back for me tonight.

I didn't know why, but that hurt. So I repressed it.

Yeah, that's how I deal with things-by not dealing with it.

I finally nodded off, and didn't wake up until I heard someone yell "Crap!" from somewhere in the outside world. I glanced at the clock. It was five am.

My day of liberation was here.

Nathan opened the door.

I looked at him, tired.

"Oh, crap." He said, and he started untying me.

Nathan and I aren't on the same side. He and I are far from the closeness Danny and I had shared. But if we were all on a sinking ship, and I could only save one of my brothers-my mom's already in the life boat, mind you-then I'd probably pick Nathan. He and I can, occasionally, get along, so it was natural that if anybody actually remembered I was there, it would be him.

"I am so sorry, Rory." He said quickly. "We were playing Nintendo, and we fell asleep…we weren't planning to leave you in that long, Ror, I swear. I am so, so sorry about this."

He pulled away the scarf that had been covering my mouth.

"It's fine." I said. "Really. No big deal."

"No, it's not. Look at you, Ror. You look horrible. Did you sleep at all last night?"

"Yeah." I said. "Like I said. No big deal."

He looked at me skeptically. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah," I said. "I'm sure. I'm not mad."

He looked at me for a moment longer, then seeming satisfied, nodded.

I started walking away.

"By the way," he said, "Do you mind not mentioning this to mom…?"

I turned around and looked at him.

"There's nothing to mention." I told him. "It's nothing."

And then I walked away.

A/N: I don't think that was too angsty. Do you? Review and let me know.


	5. What Kind Of Milk?

A/N: Hey, guys, I'm back! How've you all been? I missed you guys.

Anyway, thank you all for reviewing! I love you guys! And not in a creepy stalkery way, either. In a nice, friendly but not obsessive way. *Eye twitches*

Just kidding.

Okay, couple things: First off, there are two more chapters after this one, plus an epilogue.

Next, this chapter moves quite fast-it keeps flipping between POVs faster than Edward playing baseball. Just a warning.

Now for the non-story related stuff that you can skip if you want to, but personally I'm always to obsessive compulsive to skip anything, but you might be different than me, blah, blah, blah…

First, I got the Twilight soundtrack today, and I am in love with it. For an English guy, Rob Pattinson's voice sounds very…country. But that's a good thing, in my humble (*snickers*) opinion.

And lastly, I have two questions for you. No particular reason, I'm just curious.

One: Are you worried that the movies will downplay the werewolves' involvement in the story? I'm not, because they wouldn't be press-pimping Taylor Lautner the way that are if they were planning on shoving him in the background.

Second, who do you think would make a good Leah and Seth in the movies? For Leah, I'm not entirely sure, but for Seth, I'm thinking, Raja Fenske, who played Jake Bahari in Unfabulous. You?

Disclaimer: What? No, I don't own Twilight. Silly people.

(Rory's POV)

I wound up early to my art class. Jasper was there.

How did I miss that? He wasn't there yesterday, I was sure. Ditching? Maybe. Sick? Also maybe.

Did it matter? Of course not. He was there, so it was game time.

I sat down next to him.

"Hi, Jasper," I said, like he didn't hate and/or strongly dislike me.

He glanced in my direction, and made a production of sighing heavily. I resisted the strong internal urge to roll my eyes at him.

Aside from that, he did not acknowledge my presence.

"So…kind of a cloudy day we're having today, huh? Is it like this all the time in Forks?"

There was some thunder outside, as though the sky was confirming this.

He, on the other hand, didn't answer.

"Is something troubling you?" I asked, feigning concern, like I didn't know exactly what was troubling him.

Me.

He turned in his seat, probably to tell me so, then actually saw me for the first time and raised an eyebrow.

"What happened to _you?_" he asked incredulously. I could tell he regretted it a second later-Heaven forbid he give any sign that I might take as him devoting one millisecond in his thought process to me-but that was okay. I would take this small victory for what it was worth.

Heck, I wasn't really surprised. I'd been getting that question all day-from my mom, from Jessica, from random people I didn't even know. Many of them said it as a rhetorical question, almost mocking me.

Ooh, how original.

But they were probably justified in wondering.

Sleeping in the laundry room hadn't done me well. With the shadows under my eyes, the fact that I kept tripping everywhere because I couldn't pay attention to my surroundings-I'd only gotten to sleep at some time I guessed to be around two in the morning-and my hair messy and tousled. I'd even taken a nap in math class, much to the displeasure of the teacher, who seemed to think Algebra was actually important no matter what career you had, which was a load of bullcrap. My mom knew no algebra at all, which was why in Florida, I usually went over to Ellis's house for tutoring. Ellis's dad was a professional techie, but even he had trouble remembering how to do algebra. So no, Mr. Rasmussen, I don't believe that I'm going to have to use algebra in the real world.

In any case, I considered giving Jasper the "Long story" or "I don't want to talk about it" or even playing dumb, like I had no idea what he was talking about-but I didn't want him to assume worse things were going on at my home than reality.

So I told him.

"My brother's got P. at me last night, so they tied me up and locked me in the laundry room…then they forgot about me and I wound up sleeping in there."

He looked at me like he was expecting me to say "Just kidding." I considered doing so-it would be a weak joke, but maybe, just maybe, he'd smile-but I didn't.

He just frowned at me, like he was trying to figure me out, and then class began and he turned to the front.

(Jasper's POV)

I didn't believe her at first. Tying their sister up and locking her in the laundry room? How barbaric can you get?

But then I realized a few things:

One, I started paying attention to her emotions and noticed the hurt that remembering this incident had brought up. Even if she didn't.

Two, I remembered that she was talking about teenage boys, and

Three, I remembered something vague from my human life. I'd had a lot of brothers, and only one little sister, and I remembered how we used to tease her. I would usually try to stick up for her, but when I joined the Confederacy, I got all kinds of letters from her, saying what latest joke they'd pulled on her. I remembered that my only regret was not being there to protect her.

I looked at the girl sitting next to me, with the shadows under her eyes, and felt a pang of guilt that for once, I knew belonged to nobody but me.

I tried to brush it off, saying that it was for her own good, and if she kept hanging around more than necessary, I would surely slip up one day. Even now, the thirst was burning my throat, even as I had hunted just two days ago, it was so difficult. I directed my thoughts away from that, and chose instead to go over exactly what I intended to say to her, the moment the opportunity presented itself.

That moment was now.

"Rory," the teacher said, "Why didn't you do your homework?"

(Rory's POV)

I was so tempted to say "Because the ice cream wouldn't MELT!" but I decided that wasn't the best idea and instead chose to ensure that at least one good thing came out of my unhealthy appearance.

"I got really sick last night." I told her. "I-"

"How sick?" she demanded suspiciously.

"Really sick, I-"

"How did you get sick?"

"I drank some bad milk."

"What kind of milk?"

I blinked at her. Was…was she kidding? She had to be kidding, right?

"You know," she snapped, "Whole milk, 2 percent, fat free, what?"

"I was blowing chunks all night." I told her bluntly. "And in fact, I don't feel too well right now. May I go?"

With a disgusted expression, she excused me.

I went around to the back of the building. I had hoped to lie down and take a nap, but I'd forgotten where I was. Dry ground was forbidden by some unspoken law here. So I found the driest spot I could and sat down, leaning against the building and closing my eyes. For some reason, the cold, wet air felt good to me right now. I inhaled deeply, savoring it, but I was extremely confused.

More so than usual, I mean.

I remembered how my mom said that not getting enough sleep was bad for your immune system, and was suddenly aware of how warm I felt.

Aw, crap.

(Jasper's POV)

I watched her leave. A few minutes later, I raised my hand.

The teacher looked at me suspiciously. I never spoke in her class, or any class, for that matter, unless called on.

"Would it be alright for me to go see if Rory's okay?" I asked. "I'm concerned."

Eager to go back to her lecture on the color wheel, she agreed.

I walked out, and through sound and smell, realized that she was in back. I walked around.

She looked asleep, leaning against the building with her head on one shoulder.

I sighed. I was not going to feel right doing this, but I reminded myself she hadn't left me any other choice. It was in everyone's best interest, I told myself.

I grabbed her by the arm and picked her up so her back was to the wall, pinning her shoulders to the brick with my hands.

She was awake now. She looked at me.

(Rory's POV)

"Jasper?" I asked. "Um…" He'd woken me up by dragging me off the ground and was now pinning me to the wall, not hard enough to hurt me, but enough to imply that he could if he so wished. His hands were ice-cold, and I wondered if I had a really high fever…no, I said. I'd know if I did. It was him.

"I don't think you're getting circulation to your hands," I told him. "You should get that checked."

He ignored me. I was starting to expect that.

"Listen." He hissed. "Don't talk to me anymore. I don't like you. I don't want to be friends. I don't want to talk to you. Just leave me alone."

I frowned. That stung so much, I would have laugh at myself if it didn't, you know…sting so much. I barely knew this guy, but it meant so much to me that he like me. No chance of that, apparently.

"Okay." I said.

"Okay?" he asked, not convinced and clearly surprised.

"Yeah. Just tell me this," I said, trying to fight back the tears as I remembered my question from earlier. "Why did you smile at me then, if you don't like me? And what did I ever do to you? I'll leave you alone, but not for no good reason. I want to know exactly why. Not so I can change," I added forcefully. "I just want to know."

He blinked, loosened his grip for just a moment, and then he had my shoulders tighter than ever. It hurt a little bit, now. I tried not to flinch.

(Jasper's POV)

Why was this so hard? Why did this girl-this ordinary, human girl-have such a strong effect on me? Why did I want to use my ability to make her stop hurting? Why did I care so much that she believed me when I said I didn't like her?

I realized, at that moment, why.

Because I was a hypocrite.

She had wanted to be friends with me because I reminded her of her brother. This had irritated me, but the truth was, I could have ended this so much more quickly than trial and error. I could have asked Edward to scan her mind, find out exactly what it would take to make her go away, and then done that. Problem solved.

But I didn't, and the reason was that subconsciously, she reminded me of my sister, the one from my human life. I hadn't realized, but somewhere in my mind, the small part of my mind that was still human, I recognized that look in her eyes. It was the same one my sister had worn. It was one of isolation. And pain. And I'd wanted a chance to change that, to make up for not being able to do so for my own sister as a human. Because there was a part of me that was still clinging to the guilt.

Just to be sure, I tried to catch onto her emotions. Sure enough, underneath the current rejection, there was more. More pain, more anger, emotions that she kept deep within herself, easier to ignore.

I dropped my hands.

"I'm sorry." I told her.

(Rory's POV)

Did I just hear that right?

"Um…what now?"

"I'm sorry." he repeated.

I blinked.

"It's nothing against you, alright?" he asked. "I can't tell you why we can't be friends, but we can't. I'm sorry."

I cocked my head to the side. It was probably because he felt sorry for me, and the only reason I felt like I should trust him was because I wanted to believe him. But something inside of me was telling me that it was more than my running-away-from-my-problems instinct.

"Okay." I said.

He looked relieved.

(Jasper's POV)

We stood there for a few more moments.

"You've been through a lot, haven't you?" I asked her.

She looked startled. "What?"

"Your brothers." I clarified.

"They're…okay. It's not like they hit me or anything." She said defensively.

"But you feel excluded."

She bit her lip for a minute. Then she said, so quietly that I couldn't have heard her if I were human, she said "Yeah."

"You know, they don't mean it." I told her.

She nodded. "I know." She whispered, looking away.

"You shouldn't keep that inside." I told her. "It isn't good for you."

Her head snapped back to face me. "Fine." She said.

And then she sat down, looking up at me expectantly.

It took me a moment to understand what she wanted.

"You want me to…"

"Sit." She said as though it were obvious.

Though she didn't say it, some form of unspoken communication had just passed between us. She didn't only want me to sit. She wanted me to listen.

I couldn't be her friend, as much as she wanted-even as much as I wanted. She was different from most humans. She saw the world differently. And I wanted so badly to be the person she wanted me to be, subconsciously, the person she was trying to find. Her protector. Her friend. Her brother. Not replacing her birth brother, but being there when he couldn't, making up for not being able to do the same for my own sister. Not really replacing those people, but doing what they couldn't.

I couldn't do that, though, and I knew it.

And because of the distance, I couldn't make her stop hurting. I couldn't do that for her, either, as much as I wanted.

But this one thing, listening, I could do. And perhaps, that would help, even just a little.

I sat down.


	6. That's Kind of the Point, Einstein

A/N: Looks like I've gone back to freaking long author's notes again.

Okay, guys. So, first off, I was thrilled to see that I still have reviewers after my period of absence. You guys rock!

Next off, I made an advertisement for this story on Polyvore .com, and it has a picture of somebody who I swear looks almost exactly like how I pictured Rory, with only a few minor differences. If you're interested, here is the URL.

http : / / www. Polyvore .com /like_ lost_ puppy_ but_ more /set ?id= 4537143

Except without all those spaces, of course.

I also feel the need to mention why I made Connor the median. Because I thought he needed a purpose. There's really no point to Connor, is there? He's just kinda there.

Next up, an explanation and an apology.

Okay, here's the thing about Rory. She's in Bella's grade, but she isn't Bella's age. She was one of those kids who are smart, like really really super-smart, when they're little but then as they grow up everything just kind of evens out later on. So she skipped a couple early grades. Thus, she is only fourteen in this story. However, she doesn't look fourteen, she's tall for her age, so right now, Jess and the gang don't know that.

I would have mentioned it before, but Rory conveniently forgot to mention it as I was writing. (Yes, I hear her in my head, and sometimes we have entire conversations. Just don't judge me, okay? To be said in the voice of Jon Heder, "Gosh!") Anyway, yeah, I know, she was driving earlier…she doesn't have her license, but she blackmailed Owen into teaching her…and Chief Swan doesn't need to know about it, mmkay? I think we have an understanding. Either way, I feel really bad about that, so I humbly apologize and beg your forgiveness. It's explained in the chapter as well, but I didn't wann give anything away.

Next, responding to some reviews.

First off, Raynebow-Ninjachick, the teacher asking her what milk she drank was actually taken from an experience I had where I missed a scripture class for a few days because I drank some bad milk, and when I got back my teacher thought I was ditching or faking or something and bombarded me with questions like that.

Second, Yoroichi, I took your suggestion.

Glad you liked, Crimsonrose!

Hailey-Stone: I know, I left for a week and came back and suddenly there's this crazazy new review button, and I'm like "How long has that been there?" Anyway, I'm glad you liked it so much! And about the Seth thing, you shall find out very soon…in the next chapter. And I think it would be awesome if you reviewed in story form. Weird, but awesome.

The-Vampire-Act: Thanks! Isn't the soundtrack amazing? And I shall definitely keep that in mind. *quakes in fear of Dr. Chase.*

Shouvley: Thank you, and here is the next chapter. And you're probably right-unknowns are best. But I still think that Raja Fenske would make a good Seth.

Angel of Apathy: I'm glad too. And yeah, even I'm sad it's ending. :-.C

Rebelwilla: :-.D

Disclaimer: It's a good thing I wrote this last night, because I can't seem to come up with a decent sarcastic, cute and/or funny disclaimer. Hm…well, in any case, I do not own Twilight.

(Jasper's POV)

She told me everything.

She told me about her life in Florida, the hurricane that had pushed her family to Forks, about her friend Ellis and her brother Danny. She told me about her father leaving, and her brothers always picking on her and how she always wound up doing the most chores and her mother let it happen because her brothers always evaded learning to do laundry or cook or anything they perceived as too feminine. She told me about how she didn't feel like a member of her own family, and how she hadn't since Danny had left. She told me that even though she knew he hadn't done anything wrong, she still couldn't help but resent him for leaving her here, how she couldn't help but resent here mother for convincing him to go to college after their father left, how she couldn't help but resent her father, how she couldn't help but miss him, even after what he'd done. She let out things that I knew she had to have been holding in for years, bringing up bad memories along with the good, and even though I wanted to calm her down when she sounded too hysterical or the pain became too much, I knew inside that I shouldn't, that she'd already numbed herself for too long, that she needed this.

And then, finally and abruptly, she was finished.

After a moment, I asked "Feel better?"

She looked at me. "Yeah," she said, as though the concept had taken her by surprise.

Then she looked at me. "How do you know so much about me?" she demanded.

I knew what she meant, but decided to ask anyway. "Care to be more specific?"

"You knew I wasn't happy. You knew my brothers bugged me. Heck," she said, "You knew I was back here. I want to know how."

I shook my head.

She sighed. "Not fair." She muttered. "I just gave you my life story, and you can't tell me nothing. Double-standard…er…person."

I smiled.

She grinned.

"YOU SMILED!" she practically screamed.

I clapped a hand over her mouth. "We're supposed to be in the Nurse's Office, remember?"

I slowly removed my hand. She smirked at me.

"What?" I asked.

"I win." She said smugly.

I gave her a look.

She shook her head. "Never mind," she said.

And then there really wasn't a lot left to say. We stood there.

"I'll let you get back to…"

"Sleeping." she supplied.

I nodded, and started walking away, then turned around.

"You realize that this doesn't change anything, right?" I asked, just to be sure there were no miscommunications.

"I know," she said cheerfully. "Bye, Jasper!"

(Rory's POV)

He paused, then

"Goodbye, Rory."

Nice to know he remembered my name.

And then he was gone.

LINETHATREPRESENTSPASSAGEOFTIME

Lunch that day was just chock full of firsts.

One: Danny called me for the first time in forever.

I was in the lunch line with Jessica, which took forever for a school with only three hundred something kids in it. Suddenly, I felt my phone vibrating. I pulled it out and was about to terminate the call, when I noticed the number on caller ID. I grinned.

"Hey, Danny!" I said ecstatically.

"Geez, Rory!" he laughed. "If you don't wanna talk to me right now, then I'll just call back."

"Hardy-har." I said dryly.

"So how's Forks?" he asked.

"Um…wet."

I continued to tell him everything that had been happening. Mostly about how much I missed him.

"Rory, I miss you too, but you're starting to make me feel guilty."

"Good," I laughed. I was surprised to realize that it was entirely meant as a joke-there were no underlying feelings of resentment or anger. I was finally starting to let go.

And then Owen had to come and ruin everything, as per usual.

Here's the thing: I've never been good at making friends. For one thing, I've always been two years younger than the people in my grade. When I was younger, I was shorter than all my classmates. Then the Neilson tall-gene kicked in when I was about eight, and I was consistently taller than the majority of my peers by at least two inches.

Again, at least. At most was standing next to me, talking to Mike Newton. Jessica was a tiny little thing, almost as tiny as Alice Cullen. The median was usually someplace in between-

Well, duh. That's kind of the point of the median, isn't it?

But anyway, a boy named Connor was a good representation on the median. I was about three or four inches taller than he was.

Of course, at this school, what with the Cullens and Hales-and four out of five of them were tall-and my brothers roaming around, not to mention Angela, a quiet girl who was about as tall as me, it wasn't too unusual. I wasn't entirely sure whether that was a good thing or a bad thing.

The last and most potent reason I had trouble with friends was named Owen. Owen didn't leave his antagonization at home, and anybody who dares fraternize with me was put into his line of fire as a target as well.

We were walking to the table. Mike had left and was already there with the rest of the little group that I'd found myself entered into. Jessica was still there, and I was still talking to Danny when Owen suddenly stepped in front of us and grabbed our trays.

Owen conformed so well to the cliché of the playground bully, it wasn't even funny. In fact, in elementary school, Owen had always been getting detention for pushing kids off various playground equipment. Danny had been average; Nathan had been a Playground Nazi, screaming at kids to stop whatever shenanigans they were getting into before the poked somebody's eye out. I wouldn't get involved with whatever stupid thing the other kids were doing, but usually got in trouble anyway because I would sit and watch it all unfold, thus becoming an "accomplice." I kid you not, that's what the yard duties said to a five-year-old.

But that's irrelevant.

"Hey!" I screamed. Jessica looked up, shocked. He laughed.

"I'm hungry," he said.

"What's going on?" Danny asked me.

"I'll call you back later," I promised, snapping my phone shut.

"Buy your own freaking lunch, Owen!" I snapped.

"I don't have enough money."

"You steal my money!"

"I didn't steal enough!"

Nathan, who was sitting at the nearby basketball-team-table, tried to make him stop.

"Owen," he said in a warning tone of voice but so quietly that only I heard him.

That was the thing with Nathan-I was pretty sure he'd be willing to stop playing for the bad side (aka the evil incarnate that lived in my house) but he never spoke up-he just wasn't that person, he wasn't outgoing. It was nice to know that he was aware of how much it sucked to be me whenever Owen was within a ten-mile radius, but it didn't really do much good.

I was about to tell Owen exactly where he could burn, for all I cared, when suddenly, Jasper, almost out of nowhere, steps in front of him. When did he get here?

He didn't say a word, he just kinda stood there, looking intimidating, and Owen looked up at him (Yes, Owen looked up at someone. Jasper was at least three inches taller. Coming from someone who's been looked down on, in more ways than one, by Owen her entire life, it was a beautiful sight) with this challenging look on his face, but you could see the fear in his eyes. He wasn't used to being challenged.

And then, Jasper just took the trays out of his hands and handed them back to Jessica and me. Owen glared at him for a few more seconds, then rolled his eyes and walked back to his table.

I smiled hesitantly at Jasper; he smiled back, and then he was turning around and walking back towards his family, who all had interesting expressions on their faces. Edward and Emmett were looking at him incredulously, questioningly; Emmett almost seemed to feel sorry for him, like he literally thought that Jasper had lost his mind. Rosalie looked absolutely livid, and I wondered what she'd have to say to him. Alice, though, seemed pleased. Almost…proud.

"Who was that guy?" Jessica asked.

I looked at her. "Jasper," I said slowly, confused. "Jasper Hale…"

"I know that!" she giggled. "I meant, the other boy, the one who tried to take our lunches."

I felt smart.

We started walking again. She continued:

"I mean, it seemed like you knew him. Are you-"

"He's my brother," I told her. "Unfortunately."

She nodded. We sat down. "I hear ya. I have a younger brother at home, he's sooo annoying." She paused to take a sip of water, like she wanted to get the taste of the word 'brother' out of her mouth.

Now that I thought of it, that word did kind of taste nasty, at least when it was being applied to Owen. I took a drink of water.

"So, it looks like Alice Cullen's got some competition, huh?" she asked.

I did a spit-take.

When I regained composure-and the laughter died down-I said

"Nah, he's more like a big brother."


	7. Like a Sleepover at Hitler's

A/N: Hey everybody! Second update today. You're welcome.

Thank you for all the reviews! They make me feel warm and fuzzy inside, and they make me want to write more and more. So again, I thank you. I wish I could say more, but I can't find words.

This is the last chapter before the epilogue, everybody. This is where we learn exactly why (if anybody aside from Hailey-Stone has noticed, nobody else commented on it) I put Seth as one of the characters. Just so we're clear, Seth hasn't phased yet-this takes place before Twilight even happened.

I also wanna apologize to HannahGirlie for not responding to her review sooner. For some reason, fanfiction decided not to let me know you reviewed until right now. But anyway, thank you, and I'm sorry about what happened with that girl reporting you. She sucks more than a black hole.

Next, the little girl mentioned in passing is Claire's older sister, thus Emily's niece so probably Seth and Leah's second cousin. I would've used Claire, but I think she's like, one at this point in time, and can't talk.

This chapter takes place not too long after the last one, but it's not the same day. I'm think, at least a week, maybe two, no more than three.

And lastly, Rory's uniform can be found here:

http: // www. Polyvore .com/ rorys_uniform /set?id =4551503

I would have just described it in-story, but I thought it would make Rory sound ostentatious and I didn't want to cheapen the character.

And I'm starting to turn into one of those obsessive authors who have to have pictures of everything and everyone.

But that may not necessarily be a bad thing.

So review, let me know what you think of the chapter, and also if I should keep putting the URLs for pictures and stuff, or put them all on my profile in one convenient place and let you know if I put something new, OR just stop doing them altogether.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, I don't own Full House, I don't own Linkin Park and I don't own iHop. The only thing I own is Rory, which is good, because at least I'm hearing the voices of figments of my own imagination, as opposed to figments of somebody else's.

OoOoOoOoOo

(Rory's POV)

I couldn't even blame my mom for making me work in the diner anymore.

I was keeping up in all of my classes, so I didn't have the excuse of being overwhelmed by homework. The only other thing I could be doing was some kind of social activity, and let's face it-I didn't have anyone to socialize with. Jessica was still being friendly enough, I mean, she kept me around, but I was, what, two years younger than her and her friends? Three? Not to mention being new. I was an unknown entity. It was what usually happened-she and her friends would rather hang out with people their own age that they'd known their entire lives than…well, me. Not to mention the Owen factor; although he hadn't bothered us at school since the incident with Jasper, I was relatively sure that, knowing he lived at my house, nobody would want to come over. I didn't even like going home, and I was used to it. For them, it would be like a sleepover at Hitler's little sister's house.

So, as the antisocial child, I was the obvious choice to take more work in the diner than my brothers-at least then my mom could get some good out of me before the day I showed up to school with a sawed-off shotgun and put Forks on the map.

That didn't mean I had to like it.

One: I hated the uniforms.

Why did my mom think it was a good idea to have us wear miniskirts in an area where it's always raining? There were two other waitresses that my mom had hired, but they didn't mind it as much as I did. Which made sense, since they'd been born and raised there. Besides which, I just had the innate hatred of skirts that I guess came from being the only girl in the family.

Two: The customers patronized you. And I don't mean as in, they were patrons.

When you work as a waitress, people tend to look down on you. They assume that you work there because you're unintelligent. One of the other waitresses was a chemistry major. Another was this amazing musician who was trying to save up enough to cash to move to L.A. And I wasn't stupid, and I knew it, because stupid people aren't good at arguing. Or sarcasm.

"What's the difference between regular nachos and deluxe nachos?" the woman asked.

When did we get deluxe nachos? When did we even get regular nachos? This was news to me. Then again, my mom rarely remembered to tell me anything.

"Um, I dunno." I said. "Let me go-"

"Well, you might want to familiarize yourself with the menu, hon." the woman's friend cut me off, speaking slowly and deliberately and, as I said, patronizingly. "Or else you might just lose your job."

I wish.

"Check." I finished, and walked away.

The first woman sighed heavily. "How unprofessional." She muttered. Her friend giggled.

If I do say so myself, it was impressive feat in and of itself that I did not flip them off behind my back.

Once they had their food, I went outside to get some fresh air. The diner was surprisingly busy that night, but I needed a moment to breath and recollect myself if I was going to keep my happy-mask firmly in place.

I stood outside, leaning against the wall under the porch-overhang thing because it was, as usual, raining. There were only two people outside, a man smoking a cigarette and a dark boy who looked about my age sitting on the bench. Not long after I came out, a little girl came out. She looked, maybe five, and there was a bit of a family resemblance between her and the boy.

"Seth, your mom wanted me to tell you you're going to catch a cold out here." She said, in that commanding tone of voice that little kids use when they're proud of having been delegated certain tasks that their parents didn't want to do themselves. What else are kids for, right?

Seth smiled at her.

"Tell her I'll be there in a sec, okay Squirt?"

She giggled at the nickname. "You got it, dude."

I tried not to smile. How do you not smile at Full House references? Especially when they're being said by five-year-olds? I don't know, but somehow I managed. It was immature of me to want to hang onto my bad mood, but stubbornly, I did.

Seth suddenly noticed me watching him and grinned.

I turned my head away quickly, embarrassed and resentful at having been caught staring.

Cigarette man walked away, neglecting the ashtray in favor of the floor.

"The cockroaches are getting cancer," I muttered in a sing-song voice. I thought I was being quiet, but then Seth snorted.

I ignored him and sat down on the bench across from him. A few moments passed with only the muffled sound of what was going on inside the diner, and the rain. I started tapping out a beat on the bench without noticing until Seth asked, sounding amused, "So, what song is that?"

I looked at him, startled into answering "What?"

_Crap. _

He seemed pleased that I finally spoke to him. And then I understood-

It was a _game. _Of course-it was like me, trying to make that one boy smile, trying to get Jasper to talk to me-I was being a challenge, and he had accepted.

Okay. Being on this side was different, but it didn't matter. Game on.

"What song were you playing?" he asked again, grinning that same good-natured grin as before and hitting the bench in a similar rhythm to what I'd been playing a moment ago.

I turned my head.

"I'm Seth," he said. "What's your name?"

I tapped my nametag pointedly.

"Oh. Duh." He said. I struggled to stop the corners of my mouth from turning up.

"So," he said, but then his cousin-niece-sister whoever came out.

"Se-eeeeeeeeth" she said, drawing out his name. "Your mom says you haveta come inside _now."_

A minute later, Tessa, one of the other waitresses, poked her head outside

"Hey, Rory," she said, "Your mom wants you back in there-" she suddenly saw Seth, and smiled coyly at me, grinning.

"I-"

"Take your time," she said, winking and going back inside.

I sighed and stood up. Seth was already up and going to the door. He held it open for me.

"Thanks." I mumbled reluctantly, smiling a little bit despite myself.

(Jasper's POV-starts sometime earlier)

Edward sighed heavily.

"You want to what?"

"I want to help her, Ed. She's alone. She needs someone."

"And you intend to do…what, about that, exactly?"

"Help her find a friend."

"Since when do you run a matchmaking service for humans?" he said, shaking his head. But even I knew he would help me. As bitter and depressed as he acted, he wasn't evil.

And besides which, the only other things he had to do was play his piano and sulk. One of those things, I was sure he'd completely forgotten about, and the other, he did so often that I couldn't imagine how he didn't at least attempt to find something of interest to do. Guess which was which.

I shrugged.

"Fine," he said, "What do you have in mind?"

As if he didn't already know.

"Well," I said, "I believe her mother owns a diner, correct?"

WHAT'SHETHINKING?READON

Edward, for obvious reasons, knows the human mind better than anyone.

This made him the perfect person to determine the best spot to put an advertisement-the spot where there was a greater likelihood of people willing to listen to it. The spot where the most people on lunch-break drove by, things like that.

We would have just posted the flyers all over town, but we were relatively sure that Rory or some member of her family would notice if we did. Which, for various reasons, we didn't want.

Once Edward and I had figured out what the best spot to put the advertisement was, it was simple. We went after school-no need to go in the morning and possibly, if it worked, overwhelm Ms. Swiston while understaffed.

And then we watched. It was plain to see that the advertisement had worked. Ms. Swiston's diner was very busy, and from the nervousness and excitement coming from her and her hired waitresses, this was not a common occurrence.

Rory, of course, remained as cynical as ever.

I was about to leave when she came outside and began talking to the boy from the Quileute reservation-or more accurately, he began talking to her. She was trying to ignore his attempts at friendship, much like I had done with her, albeit most likely for a very different reason on her part.

I wondered if she would deject the boy forever, but then, as they were going inside, I saw her smile. It was very small, unlike the boy, who consistently wore a wide grin, but it was there. I could tell he would win her over, and she would be okay.

I smiled.

"Jaz," Edward said, "I think we can go now."

"Yeah," I agreed. "I think we can."

So we left.

A/N: There you go. Jaz is quite devious, isn't he? Yes…last chapter. Sad. But never fear, never fear, because we still have the epilogue. And…

Okay guys, now that you've read the last chapter, I really need you all to consider something. I am considering writing a sequel.

Okay, that's a lie, I got four chapters into a sequel but hated it so if I do a sequel, I'm starting over. Either way, right now I'm leaning towards the "write the sequel" side.

So, my question is, if I do a sequel, would you read it? Your answers will determine how much information I choose to give in the epilogue, so I kinda need to know.

And for the record, Yoirichi, there will probably be some more Danny-Rory angst that you were talking about in the sequel, if I choose to do one.

Thanks everybody!


	8. Epilogue: That's Not Stalkery At All

A/N: Hey guys! So, it's official-to save myself from a painful surgery by Dr. Chase (and also because I would enjoy it) I'm writing a sequel.

I have also officially decided to post any and all pictures of characters, outfits and whatnot on my profile. I have pictures of Rory and all her brothers, and I'll be adding more in the sequel. So if you're interested…yeah, now you know.

This chapter….epilogue…thing…is dedicated to everybody who read, reviewed, favoritededed, put on story alert, or any combination of the three. I'm not much of a chapter story writer, and was nervous about writing this, but with your encouragement and advice, it was hard for me to even stop. You rock!

Couple things.

1) This takes place at the end of the year, at Prom. Mickey (.Sailor.L., FYI) mentioned that it would be funny to make Jasper dance, and it did sound fun to write, so I did, but I didn't think I'd post it because it wasn't initially important to the plot. But then, I started writing in that CD thing, which I realized would be important if I did a sequel, and I also liked it too much to keep it locked up, and plus, I realized that I'd feel really guilty for holding out on you guys. So then I was gonna post it as a "deleted scene" if you will, but then when I decided to write a sequel, the other epilogue I had planned didn't work anymore, because it gave away too much information…so this became the epilogue instead. Amazing. AMAZING story I just told, I know.

So, Mickey, I thank you.

2) Hannah, in response to your question: Edward and Jasper as are of yet unaware that Seth is going to turn into a werewolf. You're right, if they knew, then they probably wouldn't be so cool with them being buds.

And Scrappin-Mastiff-Mom, thanks for asking that. I guess that was kind of unclear, huh? Well, yeah, it was just an ad for the diner. I think Jasper would be too worried about what kind of weirdos would show up if he went all eHarmony on her.

3) Warning: Extreme Jasper-Rory Brother-Sister-like fluff.

4) Jasper and Rory might seem a little out-of-character here, but trust me, I have three older brothers so I know from experience-brothers act different around their little sisters. Sometimes they act more immature, sometimes more obnoxious, sometimes more protective, sometimes a combination of those three, but they always do.

5) Yes, if you're wondering, Emma is the name of Jasper's human sister.

6) Finally, at one point, Rory says "It's not like I'm asking you sing the FUN song." Yes, she's referencing Spongebob.

7) Okay, so that was more than a couple things. Sue me.

Disclaimer: I had this bombtastic disclaimer all ready, but then Stephanie Meyers, Edwin McCain, Big Idea, Blink 182, McFly, The Sound of Music and Nickelodeon decided that since it referenced _their_ products and not mine, I couldn't use it. Sorry.

Lotta pop culture in this one, isn't there?

Onward!

(Rory's POV)

Forks High was so small that they had to invite the entire school to Prom if they wanted to have enough people for it to even be worth putting any effort into.

In every High School, there is a small group of kids who aren't the prom-going types. Who don't care, don't like being dressed up, Prom isn't their thing, they just want to get out of High School, they didn't do school-sponsored gigs. Whatever. At Forks High, this group was exceptionally small.

I was in that group.

So I'm sure it surprised the rest of the school when I did show up. Until they saw the camera. Then I'm thinking it was safe bet that their thoughts went something like:

"OOOOOOOOOOooooooooooh, okay. That makes sense."

And then went back to whatever they happened to be doing when they noticed that weird chick had shown up to prom.

As I'm sure you have gathered at this point, I was not happy to be there.

Why had I joined yearbook again? I saw Mrs. Delvymore standing across the gymnasium. She sent me a dirty look. I stared determinedly back, not willing to break eye contact. Then she turned back to her conversation with Mr. Banner.

Oh, yeah. Because the art teacher was a psycho.

I sighed, and snapped a picture of a boy walking by. The camera I had looked Polaroid, but it wasn't. He looked at me, and for some reason, laughed.

I glared at him. He scurried away.

There were only two other kids in yearbook who'd been assigned to take prom pictures. One of them was one of those exclusive photographers who only took pictures of her friends, boys they thought were cute (that's not stalker-y at all) and girl's whose dresses they liked. The other one had taken three shots and left. So I was left to capture these amazing memories that they would remember for life, as long as they died in two weeks.

I snapped another picture and glanced across the room to find the five junior members of the Cullen-Hale family-minus Edward, who would probably be found with Bella Swan somewhere if I'd cared to look hard enough, which I didn't-presumably taking a breather. Or silently agreeing that the music sucked, which it did, for the most part. Whichever.

'Say cheese,' I thought to myself.

I went the long way, keeping to the walls rather than getting trampled, and approached them. They noticed, and watched me carefully and observantly as I did. Rosalie had her eyes narrowed, like she was daring me to come closer. Dare accepted.

I walked up to Jasper and snapped a picture of him without saying a word.

Emmett snorted. I ignored him. Jasper gave me a look.

"Yearbook." I said, turning my camera in Emmett and Rosalie's direction and hitting the button without looking at them. I could've sworn I heard Rosalie hiss.

"Ah."

"You know," Emmett said, grinning at me, "I'm not much of a photographer, but those pictures might turn out better if you took the lens cap off."

I looked at the camera. "Wha-_crap_. Seriously?"

"How many pictures have you taken so far?" he asked, still sounding amused.

I scratched the back of my neck. "A few…" I muttered.

He gave me a look.

"Okay, so like, seventy." I admitted.

Emmett, as I then learned, had a very loud laugh.

Rosalie was giving me a dirty look.

I took the lens cap off and took a picture of her without a word. Then I stepped back and got one of the four of them. Rosalie didn't smile. Shocker. Emmett's laughter was still dying down; Jasper was smiling that same way he had so many months ago, that first day, not overly warm but friendly enough. And Alice just looked ecstatic.

"So," Jasper asked, "Not to be rude, but can I ask why you came over here?"

"Well, for one thing," I said, getting another shot of Alice just out of gratefulness that someone had acted enthusiastic for the pictures, "I needed some pictures of you guys."

"And for another?"

"For another, I came to ask you to dance."

"But Rory," he pointed out, "We still aren't friends."

"Thank you. I was worried someone may have overlooked that." I said sarcastically.

"Yes," he said very deliberately, "It looks like somebody did."

I rolled my eyes.

"Come on, please?" I asked. "It's not like I'm asking you to sing the FUN song with me or anything. Just one dance. Please?"

Edward and Bella chose that moment to appear. I took a picture.

"Hey, Bella, hey Edward." I said.

"Uh, hey, Rory." Bella said, clearly sounding confused. Edward was sending a quizzical look at Jasper. Like, "What's _she _doing back again?"

And I'm guessing Bella pretty much thought she was the only one to ever fraternize with the Cullens. Which was understandable. I mean, we weren't best friends or anything-though we sat at the same table at lunch, we barely spoke to each other. And in any case, it wasn't like it happened a lot, and it wasn't like I'd had as much success as she'd had.

"Hello, Rory." Edward said politely.

I was going to turn back to Jasper right then, but it felt awkward for no particular reason-not really in talking to Jasper, just in not continuing to ramble on to Bella and Edward.

"So are you kids enjoying yourselves?"

"Very much so." Edward said, "I hope the same can be said for you?"

I shrugged, trying to find something optimistic to say and failing.

"Oh, you know, it's…no. I'm not really. But thanks for asking anyway."

"My pleasure. I'm sorry to hear that."

"Eh, it's fine, not like I expected much else. These kinda shindigs really aren't my forte anyway."

He just smiled. He'd seemed a lot happier since he and Bella had become "an item."

The awkward demon disappeared to go torment some poor guy meeting up with his ex and her new man at a grocery store, so I turned back to Jasper.

"Please?" I asked him.

"I don't know how to dance."

Yeah, right. People like Jasper didn't just not know how to dance. That wasn't his place in the world, it was mine, and so help me, he was not going to just dethrone me.

"Shh." I said. "Do you hear that?"

He raised an eyebrow. "No."

"It's the sound of that lie screaming in pain because it just fell flat on its face."

He rolled his eyes at me. I heard Emmett snicker.

"I don't know how, either," I continued. "So that's not an excuse."

"I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to find someone else who would be willing." He said.

"Thanks, Jasper," I said. Even if his argument wasn't true, it was sweet. "But I'm fourteen. I'm probably the youngest person here right now. I shouldn't even be here. Whoever else I ask will either freak out like I'm popping the question and will be too afraid of being called a cradle-robber, or they'll freak out because I'm taller than them. And don't say that's a generalization, because that might be true in a bigger school, here I'm just being honest."

"You know, Jasper, she's probably right." Emmett said. He seemed amused at our conversation.

"Thank you, Emmett." Jasper sighed, shooting Emmett a dark look.

"Yes, thank you, Emmett," I said, though more sincerely than Jasper had been. Jasper looked back at me but didn't say anything.

"Please?"

"No."

(Jasper's POV)

I looked back at Rory. She still had that defiant expression, arms still crossed determinedly. She never gave up, did she? She reminded me so much of Emma like that.

"Not now," I said, somewhat reluctant at this point. I wanted her to be happy, whether because of my ability or because she reminded me of my sister, I wasn't sure. Probably a mixture of both, and probably partially just because she was a part of me now. I wanted her to be happy for the same reason I wanted my family to be happy. Because I cared about her.

Regardless, she was still a human, and I was still a vampire.

"Please?"

"No."

She sighed, an overly dramatic gesture, and started walking away, muttering "fun sucker" when the song changed.

She turned around.

I raised my eyebrows.

"It's one of my favorites." She said quietly.

"Rory-"

"Please? I love this song,"

"But-"

"Jasper, please?"

Then Alice, who had been watching this exchange, laughed.

"Go on, Jaz," she whispered, so fast and high that Rory couldn't hear. "It's just one dance. You hunted earlier today. You'll be fine."  
I sighed. Alice's faith in me, as always, helped immensely.

I looked at Rory's face again and wondered if she used that expression to manipulate Danny like that. If she had, it was no wonder he'd gone so far to college-he'd never have had time to himself if he'd stayed. He wouldn't have been able to say no to her, either.

"Okay," I said.

"YAY!" she said. I couldn't help but smile. She was acting much younger than her age. I wondered how Owen could manage to torture her so much and not feel guilty about it.

And with that, she grabbed my hand and dragged me away.

Once on the dance floor, she seemed uncertain.

"You really don't know how to do this, do you?" I asked, amused.

For once, there was no sarcastic comeback. She responded with a cheerful "Nope." She was too happy to be sarcastic, and it was rubbing off on me.

I grinned.

Once I helped her figure out how to slow-dance, we just danced for a few more moments until I said, "Can I ask you something?"

"Shoot." She said. "Not literally, but shoot."

I rolled my eyes.

"What makes 'I'll be' so special?"

"Danny was always making mix CDs. There was one that I always remembered because he always had it in his car. This was one of the songs. We used to sing along to every one."

"What other songs were on it?" I asked curiously.

"All the Small Things by Blink 182…Stargirl by McFly…The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything from Veggie Tales…"  
"Veggie Tales?" I asked, giving her a look.

"Veggie Tales are bombtastic!" she defended.

"Wait…'bombtastic'?"

"Must you question everything I say?" she asked, irritated.

"No, I don't have to. It is entertaining, though."

"Funny." She said sarcastically.

I grinned.

"Sorry. Continue."

As she kept naming off songs, I made sure to remember the names of every one for future reference.

The song ended. She curtsied. I bowed.

"Thank you." She said. "Was that so unbearable?"

"Yes."

She raised an eyebrow.

"That was a joke."

She grinned.

"I'd better get some more pictures, and you'd better go make sure your family doesn't think I kidnapped you or something."

"That would be best." I agreed.

"Tell Emmett I said that for every person he tells about the lens cap incident, I shall kill him. And that I don't care if he's bigger than me. I'll kill him anyway."

"I will definitely pass that on."

"Thank you. Bye!"

"Good-bye."

(Rory's POV)

I woke up the next morning to a heavy metal song.

"BLARGH!" I screamed, falling out of bed.

This was not a happy way to wake up. Especially for someone who had spent a long time last night taking pictures. In heels.

Owen snickered, picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder like a rag doll, and started carrying me downstairs.

"Hi!" he said cheerfully.

"Why?" I asked.

He shrugged. "I was bored."

He only did this because he knew he could. For awhile, after I'd hit 5' 9" and he was between growth spurts, he hadn't been able to do this. Then he got into sports. And then it got easier than ever for him to decide that he wanted the couch for himself, to keep me from changing the radio station, or just to irritate me by not letting me walk.

I didn't _like _not walking.

"So…you set my alarm clock to go off at-" I checked the clock as we entered the kitchen "Seven AM. With heavy metal?"

"Well, yeah."

"Hey, Owen?"

"Yeah?"

"You're an idiot."  
"Love you too, sis." He said, walking into the living room.

And then he dropped me, purposely.

Whatever, I was used to it. At least he waited to drop me on a carpeted area.

"I'm leaving." He said, going to the back door.

"Have a terrible time!" I called out cheerfully.

"I won't!" he said with equal cheeriness, and then he slammed the door, and a second later I heard it open and something smacked the back of my head.

"That was on the doorstep!" he called. And then he left.

I turned around, rubbing the back of my head. I was relatively sure that he hadn't been aiming for my head-anything that got thrown always hit my head, it was just a fact, like what goes up must come down-but you could never tell with Owen, so I took a minute to curse him to the underworld before dealing with what had been used as a projectile weapon this time.

There was a package sitting on the floor.

It was wrapped in plain brown paper, tied with a little thing of that string that they make seashell necklaces with, whatever stuff is called.

I was extremely tempted to start singing "These are a few of my favorite things," but then I decided I wanted to know what was in the package now, and so postponed my musical number until further notice.

I picked it up. It had my name written in neat, even print, but no address, no name of sender or anything. It looked like a CD. I unwrapped it. It was.

"Oh my lanta! I must be psychic!" I said out loud, sarcastically.

Don't look at me like that. It was morning, and I'd just hit my head.

Anyway, I turned it over. There was a track listing.

The first track was I'll Be by Edwin McCain.


End file.
